The Snauwaert fanclub _/¯

An ode to the classic racquets from Snauwaert, the manufacturer from Belgium.

They were the first (afaik) to engrave the weight and balancepoint of that particular stick on the racquet, making it very easy to find comparable frames. And who can forgot their (failed) adventure with the Ergonom.
Some of the pro's that used Snauwaert were Mikael Pernfors, Vitas Gerulaitis and Miloslav Mečíř.

There's very little information about Snauwaert to be found on the internet, so anyone that has some info, please post it in this thread.

Also feel free to add pictures from your frames.

I'll start with my small collection from this innovative company (click the pics for the full screen version):

Great collection. I wish I could find a Hi Ten here is the USA, but they never seem to surface. In fact, other than the Ergonom's, it is rare to find Snauwaerts in good condition here. I love the attention to detail in these racquets.

i was fully sponsored by Snauwaert back in the day. played the Kodes Auto (International Club) (still have one), then the FibreComp (have at least a couple around here). The Gottfried Auto was a popular one.

i was fully sponsored by Snauwaert back in the day. played the Kodes Auto (International Club) (still have one), then the FibreComp (have at least a couple around here). The Gottfried Auto was a popular one.

Snauwaert&Depla Kodes is a beautiful racket. i have one in vg condition. there must have been different versions of that racket?

i used to play the Gottfried Autograph(fully sponsored by my parents)
Later on the ATP 93 and the Pernfors Autograph.

at a flea-market i found 2 MCE 9003 with signature by McEnroe and a 10x9 string pattern. you can get incredible spin with that racket and the strings break after 10 to 15 min

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The one I have has the old Snauwaert Superman 'S' logo and not the last stylized S...it is white ash w. a blue vulcan fibre reinforced shaft. His autograph on one side on the throat and his name in block letters on the other side.

This is an 18 mains frame. 18 mains on a 65 sq inch frame is a VERY closed pattern. Mine is tubed and power padded in the throat and has Victor Imperial blue spiral gut. It is still very playable. It's a really exceptional racquet which is very attractive...the sweetest looking racquet to me was the Adidas Hallet..mine were both light and very headlight,,nastase used these for quite some while

Loved them in the 80s. Had a few of the Graphite rackets, but somehow the ones I owned and have hidden out of reach in the attic seemed to have been blue and yellow. I really played some of my best tennis with them. Last time I checked them, I noticed I left the original gut string on them, and the tension not only has pulled the strings through the grommets, but has actually carved canyons into the graphite as well!

The one I have has the old Snauwaert Superman 'S' logo and not the last stylized S...it is white ash w. a blue vulcan fibre reinforced shaft. His autograph on one side on the throat and his name in block letters on the other side.

This is an 18 mains frame. 18 mains on a 65 sq inch frame is a VERY closed pattern. Mine is tubed and power padded in the throat and has Victor Imperial blue spiral gut. It is still very playable. It's a really exceptional racquet which is very attractive...the sweetest looking racquet to me was the Adidas Hallet..mine were both light and very headlight,,nastase used these for quite some while

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From the description it sounds like my Kodes. S D for Snauwaert&Depla on the Buttcap.
But i had to count the strings twice, because my model has 21 mains and 18!
That is a very closed pattern.

The Golden Mid is my favorite Snauwaert of all time. I also like the Graphite Mid and Dyno, and the Boron Mid and Dyno, and the Brian Gottfried Graphite Mid and Tomas Smid Graphite Mid (both actually mostly wood composites, as used by Miloslav Mecir).

Snauwaert/Depla was one of the last vestiges of old school wood craftsmanship, and tried very hard to be innovative (albeit while still holding on to traditional materials) in the 1980's. They get full marks for:

The Carlo Gibello-designed Ergonom rackets (a commercial flop, but proof positive of how far they would push the traditional+modern formula of racket design)

Use of "modern" fibers (Kevlar/aramides, Boron) in their layups years before the larger brands took the plunge

I still enjoy playing with old Snauwaerts occasionally. On a slower court, it's hard to imagine a better racket for baseline play. If they were still making rackets in Belgium, I'd still be buying their gear consistently...

The Golden Mid is my favorite Snauwaert of all time. I also like the Graphite Mid and Dyno, and the Boron Mid and Dyno, and the Brian Gottfried Graphite Mid and Tomas Smid Graphite Mid (both actually mostly wood composites, as used by Miloslav Mecir).

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Never heard of the Smid model. Was the Gerulaitis a similar racket? And i always thought Mecir had his own signature racket.

My first racquet in 1978 was a Snauwaert Caravelle strung with Victor Imperial. What a beauty it was! Snauwaert made wonderful wood racquets and had some of the most skilled workers of the wood racquet era. True perfectionists. But they did not really handle the switch to graphite very well (although their Graphite Mid and the Dyno series were excellent frames) and had distribution problems outside of Europe. I think they went under around 1992. Their last generation of widebody frames (Dyneema S60, etc) were also pretty good. They tried to hire McEnroe as a last ditch effort, but all he did was stencil an "S" on his Max 200Gs. Their other sponsored players (Gottfried, Kodes, Smid, Gerulaitis, etc.) apparently did not do enough for the visibility of the brand. Snauwaert also had the first polyester string I can recall, called "Dyno" as well. It had the color of dark brown taffy (and played like it, too).

My first racquet in 1978 was a Snauwaert Caravelle strung with Victor Imperial. What a beauty it was! Snauwaert made wonderful wood racquets and had some of the most skilled workers of the wood racquet era. True perfectionists. But they did not really handle the switch to graphite very well (although their Graphite Mid and the Dyno series were excellent frames) and had distribution problems outside of Europe. I think they went under around 1992. Their last generation of widebody frames (Dyneema S60, etc) were also pretty good. They tried to hire McEnroe as a last ditch effort, but all he did was stencil an "S" on his Max 200Gs. Their other sponsored players (Gottfried, Kodes, Smid, Gerulaitis, etc.) apparently did not do enough for the visibility of the brand. Snauwaert also had the first polyester string I can recall, called "Dyno" as well. It had the color of dark brown taffy (and played like it, too).

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I remember when McEnroe Had the Snauwaert "S" stencil on the strings of his Dunlop Max 200G in 1990.

I used the Boronite II for several years--even after the oversized frames started coming out. It was basically a wood frame with some boron to stiffen it/make it stronger in the throat area. It was thin, even for a wood frame. Had a sweetspot the size of a dime, but it really played well. I don't know whatever happened to it though. My wife swears she didn't throw it out, but I suspect she did.

I used the Boronite II for several years--even after the oversized frames started coming out. It was basically a wood frame with some boron to stiffen it/make it stronger in the throat area. It was thin, even for a wood frame. Had a sweetspot the size of a dime, but it really played well. I don't know whatever happened to it though. My wife swears she didn't throw it out, but I suspect she did.

Great info. I think I'm going to buy one because of the great deal and to see people reaction when I pull this funky racquet out from my bag. Does anyone have the spec. on this racquet?

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Other people´s reaction is where the fun is with this racket
i put it on a scale, it´s 375g strung and with overgrip. heavier than i would have thought, but obviously head-light.
i can tell you it is very flexible. whether that´s the way the racket was supposed to be or just a matter of age is something i don´t know.

Great brand. My two favorites were the Pernfors and a dark-green, super-simple graphite mid that came out around the same time that Jonas B. Svensson and Mecir both used. Awesome feel, like it had a bouncy rubber core. The Pernfors was just beautifully balanced and of course also had great feel. Viva Belgian-made racquets!

I used the Graphite Mid when I first qualified for a USTA ranking in 14s. My dad never played tennis, but he said that was his favorite of all the dozen or so different rackets I used as a kid.

Interestingly, I bought a couple off **** a couple years ago for nostalgia's sake, and one of them was the exact same gray and red, but had a different name at the top. I believe it was maybe S2000 or something?... I think I still have one of the two somewhere -- maybe I'll post a pic of it.

And even though I never hit one or even saw one in person, I always loved the look of the Brian Gottfried wood model. Supposedly it was the same frame as the Gerulaitis (and IIRC preceded it) but with a more traditional paint scheme. I've even halfway thought about buying one of the new ones from TW.

I bought a number of them from him (6 or so)... I have a feeling once his cache of Ergonoms is gone... that will be it! He somehow got the lion's share of the remaining deadstock frames from the Snauwaert factory/warehouses. I believe he had over 1,000 at one point. He's down to about 300-400 now.

Also, the exchange rate is favorable for the Dollar to Pound, currently... so you can pick up 4 Ergonoms, shipping included to the USA for about $58.00! :shock:

These are bound to be ultra-rare someday. He really drove the price into the ground, temporarily, by offering up so many Ergonoms to the market, at one time.

Imagine the lucky person who bought all the dead stock for the Hi-Tens!! :twisted:

An ode to the classic racquets from Snauwaert, the manufacturer from Belgium.

They were the first (afaik) to engrave the weight and balancepoint of that particular stick on the racquet, making it very easy to find comparable frames. And who can forgot their (failed) adventure with the Ergonom.
Some of the pro's that used Snauwaert were Mikael Pernfors, Vitas Gerulaitis and Miloslav Mečíř.

There's very little information about Snauwaert to be found on the internet, so anyone that has some info, please post it in this thread.

Also feel free to add pictures from your frames.

I'll start with my small collection from this innovative company (click the pics for the full screen version):

Snauwaert also made tennis balls, sold in a brown metal can. I don't know if they manufactured them or had them made by another company and simply re-badged them. Probably the latter. There were interesting brands of tennis balls in the late seventies, like Tretorn, Pirelli, and Nassau.

So...either that Hi-Ten 30 really has a headsize of 30sq in or it has the most open string pattern I have ever seen! That must produce some sick spin - what does it sound like when hitting a ball!?

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Its roughly a 95 head, so yes it is a very open string pattern that should be strung at a 80+ lb tension. That was the point of the design.

Sound isn't that unique. But you can almost slice fuzz off the ball with it. Unfortunately I don't have the thick gauge strings (12 or 13 gauge I think) that were recommended for it so I'm not close to tapping the true spin potential.

There is one rare frame which is almost impossible to find. Snauwaert did design McEnroe a frame. It looked just like the 200G in terms of beam shape, head size and the like. Even to the plastic a the top of the handle like the 200G. Differences were colour, it was a greyish colour. It had a different 18 x 19 string pattern I believe, and the third and most important difference, the materials. It was a conventional graphite lay up, unlike the grafil injection of the 200G. On another note about Johnny Mac, he did in the 80s use some other Dunlop frames, though sparingly. They were made in Germany frames, which had the different weighting systems you could adjust with the ball bearings. I forgot the models of them, he even used one at the US Open one year.

I really wish that this fanclub didn't exist, these racquets are great and should be kept under the radar....mods who delete this thread will recieve choice of nwt lendl gtx pro or nwt prostaff (china) 85.

thomas martinez, that would be the Competition or Competition Plus, with the ball bearings. I have a brand new one, still has plastic on the handle and the tags too - made in West Germany and bought as deadstock from a German seller.